etakyma | Good lord, has it been two weeks?

Hi y'all! I'm back!

Long long long time. But the Palmer House Hilton is frikkin' GORGEOUS - all old and gilded within an inch of it's life - and being restored. My room was a corner room that had already been through the restoration/renovation process. The carpet was lush, the black and white photographs were arty and lovely, the lime green chair was comfy, the bed was sumptuous, and the bathroom was elegant and well appointed. The tub was deep. Since I was on a corner, I had windows on two walls - which was very nice indeed.

The day I arrived, was of course, the Harry Potter seventh book release day, and a co-worker and I went down to the Borders about four blocks from the hotel at 11pm to pick up a couple of copies of the book. Since I am a Borders Rewards member I got it for 40% off - which, man, expensive book! I didn't start reading until Saturday morning, and I finished it Tuesday night (July 24). I avoided any spoilers, so that was all good. I found it a "mostly satisfying" read, and discount the epilogue whole-cloth. Any one else read "Teddy Remus Lupin" as "Teddy Ruxpin"? Yeah.

The meeting space was on five levels which meant stairs and escalators and elevators galore. We had to go down and up to go down, and down and up to go up. And up to go up and of course, down to go down. If that makes any sense. The hotel staff was unbelievably superb. And our meeting event coordinator was there with us to the very last minute we were in the hotel - and came to see us off! Yeah - Palmer House Hilton - even with all the frustration that is Chicago is a Union City (and all the union workers that are required to just wipe your nose) the Palmer House Hilton is an amazing place and well worth staying in - ever. And once they are finished with the renovation/restoration it will be AMAZING.

We spent our last evening wandering the city - we walked up Michigan Ave. to the Water Tower (a mall on something like seven or eight levels), and back. We stopped at a TGIF's to eat a late dinner before making it back to the hotel.

Then I was off on my second big adventure - I was home only long enough to do laundry, it feels! I got home Friday night and left to drive to Toronto for Prophecy on Monday morning. Prophecy! What an amazing time! And I did not kill myself trying to do everything this time!

And I thought figuring out the Chicago Hilton was bad! Prophecy was on four/five levels of the hotel, and you had to go up to go down or down to go up or take the stairs/elevator/escalator combo PLUS walk through the lobby to get everywhere. My feets are TIRED!

Tuesday we got into to Toronto in the mid afternoon. We had been stopped at the border and stuck in Customs for about an hour and a half. Checking in was fun - because of all the stuff we had. It took three luggage carts to get everything to the room. After eating and settling in, we helped start building stuff for the Ball. Prom decorations - eight big watch towers and two huge clocks. If I never see double-sided sticky tape and colored corrugated cardboard again, it will be too soon.

Wednesday was a blur of stuffing reg bags, breaking up the badge stock and putting badges into badge holders. Then I spent the rest of the day building in the Hall of Reflection. As I was the only one on the list with staple gun, hot glue gun, cordless drill, and the know how to build *anything* I was the memory display guru. I finished the making of all fifteen 4foot by 4foot memory displays on Thursday just in time for the room to open at noon. It is a damn good thing I'd been working on those danged things for about six weeks, or I'd still be screwing stuff together.

Thursday night we went to the IMAX showing of OotP - with a short talk given by the producer of the IMAX version of the film. He was fabulous, and talked a bit about the process of creating a movie in 3D - and how they go about figuring out which bits of the movie get made in 3D. OotP has a 25ish minute bit at the end that they made 3D and did a damn fine job.

Friday was formal programming - I saw a few presentations and went to the Keynote lunch - a panel of our special guests - all of whom were delightful. I had the great good fortune to speak for a time with Connie Neal (and her scarily intelligent daughter, Casey, a delightful young woman) and Daniel Nexon, two of our special guests and featured speakers. Daniel Nexon, I think, felt a little out of place, but he was a thoughtful speaker, and an interesting man to talk with. I'd love to hear him speak again sometime. Connie, a speaker we've invited before, is always wonderful. Philip Nel was also interesting to hear speak - unfortunately I did not get to hear his presentation, but I did get to James Thomas' talk, who discussed a first year seminar he gave last fall at Pepperdine University where they reread each book and discussed themes. I wonder how much a similar seminar will change class discussions with the release of the last book?

I did not go to the podcast. I boycott all Mugglenet/Leaky Cauldron things just on general principal. Lack of interest is also a big factor.

Saturday was more of the same, but we ended the day with the Ball. Lots of formal dress robes, and kudos to the lady who rented a costume for the party.

Saturday's lunch was a keynote panel, as well, this one made up of a number of fascinating people we see around the fandom.

Sunday was cleanup day - and the Auction - which I was heavily involved in at the last minute. We raised a whole bunch of funds for charity (a couple of hospitals around Toronto each got over a thousand dollars from us). And the auction went fairly quickly as well - 57 items in less than two hours. Fan art always does really well - and we had some beautiful pieces.

glockgal,

cathybites (who collaborated on a workshop on drawing from the text not the movies that I attended and enjoyed),

longleggedgit, and

nakedbee (all of whom are friends of friends, I've discovered) to name a few of our artists. Naked Bee's photo actually brought the highest price of the day (and I understand that the winner was prepared to spend twice as much if she had to for her photo). I had attended Naked Bee's photography workshop earlier in the weekend where she discussed this particular photo a bit (called "Rub a Dub Dub" - which we subtitled "Snape in a Tub") how she convinced the person to pose nude (not difficult, she tells us, just ask your friends - most are willing to strip off for photo hijinks with very little begging!) in a tub, with a rubber ducky! And a strategically placed book, of course.

During cleanup I took a whole bunch of stuff for next year - packed it into the car to drive home, packed it into Kristin's car for her to drive home, as well.

I drove home on Monday - took ten hours, but remember the angst getting in to Canada? Two customs buildings, three offices and an hour and a half? After a five-ten minute wait in line to go through, at the customs booth I was asked exactly three questions and sent on my merry way. Gwen went off to Pennsic, and I drove home. I got home at 8pm and decided not to unpack. I've still got stuff in the car, but most of the stuff has at least been taken inside. It is kind of nice, not living in a hotel room. It's been a long couple of weeks.

So now I am trying to settle back in to my routines. I have to take a look outside the house - the weeds are taking over. Work needs catching up on - which kinda sucks as I was not ready to come back to the daily grind.

That's me in a nutshell. How have you all been? What've I missed? I feel so out of touch.